THE brother of a Lenadoon man, who died in a brutal double killing, has told how his family have been “re-traumatised” after his killer was convicted of manslaughter.
Steven Arthur Andrew McBrine (38) was sentenced on Wednesday for the unlawful killing of Joseph Dutton (47) and Frances Murray (37).
The pair were beaten to death at Ms Murray’s flat in North Belfast on December 23 2019. Both died from blunt force trauma and neck compression, but Ms Murray was also stabbed in the throat with a broken vodka bottle.
Frances Murray
In December 2019, Belfast Crown Court heard that all three, who had issues with alcohol, lived in separate flats in an apartment complex at Kinnaird Close.
McBrine denied murdering the couple, but pleaded guilty to two counts of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility due to his dependence on alcohol and mixed personality order diagnosis.
Lenadoon man Joseph Dutton was described by his brother David Dutton as a “witty” person, who was a “great boxer” in his youth.
He told how Joseph, a father of two, had “lost his family” through alcohol , but was turning a “slow corner” and “getting his life back together” before he was brutally killed.
“After my mum died in 2005 it pushed him over the edge with alcohol,” David said.
“He ended up at rock bottom. He was on the streets and all of that, but he was here six months before he was murdered, which was strange because I hadn’t seen him in a couple of years. He came to tell me that he got a new flat and he wanted to get his life back and see his sons.”
He added: “I was thinking that he was at rock bottom for a long time and he might be on his way up.”
David described McBrine as a “violent man” who had given Joseph a “brutal” death.
A court previously heard that Ms Murray had sought refuge in another neighbour's flat after McBrine told her the previous night that he was going to slit her throat. CCTV from the apartment complex was played during the plea hearing, where Murray can be seen with a serious eye injury inflicted by McBrine prior to the killing.
David said Joseph had entered the flat where the killings took place “to make the peace”.
“Sometimes in his life he was part of the problem or argument, but he wasn’t this time,” he said.
“The lady was murdered first, and then Joe went at the defendant. He killed him in the kitchen, jumped all over him.”
He added: “I ID’d him and the only way I identified him was because he had one eye open.”
David said McBrine’s manslaughter conviction had “re-traumatised” him and his family.
“You had three people with alcohol problems, two people got murdered and the killer is getting rewarded for it,” he stated. “This case is not about Joseph and his friend. This case is about Stephen Arthur McBrine.”
Delivering sentence on Wednesday, Mr Justice O'Hara said it was difficult to pass judgement on someone who is "not guilty in law of murder" but who "has killed two defenceless people in such a brutal way".
"Whatever sentences are imposed there are two dead people, two grieving families, a defendant with an abnormality of mental functioning and the public who need to be protected," he said.
The judge ruled out a hospital order as personality disorders and addictions are "excluded from the provisions of the Mental Health Order".
Turning to the potential for the defendant to carry out "more serious violent offences", he said this question is "not in dispute" and that the defence had conceded that the "test of dangerousness was satisfied".
Mr Justice O'Hara imposed two discretionary life sentences totalling 26 years – 13 years for each killing.
He set a minimum tariff of 11 years for each killing, taking into consideration "limited mitigating factors, including the early plea".
Mr Justice O'Hara stressed that "parole commissioners will not release the defendant without considering the need to protect the public from serious harm".
